Our Old Selves
by BasedSpoobyPls
Summary: It may not be easy to confront who we used to be, but sometimes we need to, in order to move forward... together. (KakaSaku) (Rated M for language and mature themes)


_There's something about watching a ninja struggle…_

Sakura held back a snicker as Kakashi tried for the third time to open the sliding door. The aged entranceway seemed to catch something on its track, preventing it from opening more than a tantalizing inch.

The man tried again, to no avail. Sakura couldn't hold it back this time.

 _Struggling with something so… mundane._

"Iruka, how often do you even go down here?" Kakashi sighed, letting go of the door. He turned expectantly to Sakura's old teacher, who merely shrugged.

"Not that often… maybe once a semester?" Iruka explained, scratching his head. "There isn't much reason to, other than once ninjas graduate."

"Do you… enter through the window?" Kakashi replied, deadpan. He gestured impatiently to the door.

"U-uh… no. It just gets jammed sometimes." Iruka explained, squeezing by everyone. The hallway they occupied was narrow, and it didn't help that there were random things strewn about; boxes, brooms, old training weapons.

As Iruka pushed by, Sakura moved out of the way and glanced to her colleagues, who were waiting just like her. Shikamaru stiffened up awkwardly as Iruka collided with him accidently; the teacher apologizing with a smile, while Shikamaru merely muttered something under his breath. Iruka had much less trouble getting around the slender Ino, though.

The three younger ninja shared an awkward glance as they waited, Iruka starting to struggle himself with the jammed door.

 _Not exactly the greatest way to spend a weekend._ Sakura thought bitterly, though her and Ino shared a knowing smile. This situation _was_ pretty funny. Shikamaru sighed, as if on cue.

"Troublesome…" He muttered, looking up at the flickering light, illuminating the hallway… most of the time.

Pushing herself off the wall, Sakura stretched, before cracking her knuckles loudly. Shikamaru looked over at her, surprised. Sakura blushed, if only slightly.

"Give me that…" Sakura mumbled, pushing her way between Kakashi and Iruka.

Grabbing onto the sliding door, Sakura gave a solid tug. Perhaps too solid, after all, as the door cracked in two. Sakura continued to hold onto the broken half, until she had truly realized what just happened. Dropping the door, she retreated back into the hallway, shuffling awkwardly.

"Erm… Sakura…" Kakashi began, voice a bit tense.

"It's open; you're _welcome_." Sakura cut him off, turning around to face the man. She was red faced, but clearly frustrated. "Let's not pussyfoot around, okay? We didn't come all the way here, _on our day off_ , to watch you two fiddle with a door."

Kakashi rubbed the back of his head, nodding. "You're not wrong; though as Hokage, I would be wise to remind you to respect the… ancient institutions of our village... or something."

" _Ancient institution_? Give me a break, it's just a bunch of dusty old records." Shikamaru sighed, again.

Ino laughed at this, though she subdued herself upon seeing Iruka's reaction.

Iruka cleared his throat, seemingly entering his teacher-mode. "And what makes you an expert on the Ninja Academy Archives, Shikamaru? I'll have you know… over a hundred years of records, information on _every single graduate_ , it's all in there."

"Yeah? Well, if it's so valuable, then why is the Hokage ordering it to be cleared out?" Shikamru jabs back. "Matter of fact, why are we the ones doing this? Isn't this grunt work?"

"Well… it's…" Iruka began, stumbling over his words. "This stuff… it means a lot to me; to everyone in the village. I just, I wanted to make sure I had people I _trusted_ working on it. Right, Kakashi?"

Kakashi stepped inside the room, stepping around the broken door carefully. Everyone else followed in suite.

As she entered the archives, a strong musty smell hit Sakura; she cringed at first, but soon enough she felt a wave of nostalgia. Her mind wandered back to days stuck in a library, studying up on jutsu and doing her homework diligently. It was a nice feeling, but somehow unfamiliar. Sakura didn't really feel that much attachment to _that girl_ ; a girl she thought back to as vain… selfish… misguided.

Looking back though, Sakura found herself snickering at the door she had snapped in two not five minutes ago.

 _I don't think my past self would be all too happy about me, either, though…_

"K-Kakashi, don't you think that's a little much?" Iruka pleaded, snapping Sakura's thoughts back into reality.

"Yeah… that seems like a lot of work." Shikamaru added, looking around nervously at the stacks of scrolls, books and manuscripts that surrounded them.

Kakashi shrugged. "Maybe, but it's necessary. The administrators of the academy have been hoarding of all this stuff too long, and there's no way it's _all_ useful. This place is a mess."

"K-Kakashi…" Iruka repeated, though now more defeated. He knew, now especially of all times, he wasn't in a position to argue with Kakashi. Before, as Chunin to Jonin sure, but one didn't disagree with a Hokage as readily, to be certain.

"Regardless of its value, we need to move this stuff elsewhere. It's a fire hazard." Kakashi continued, running his finger over a dusty bookshelf.

"How do you figure that?" Iruka asked, defensively.

"It's right next to the training field. One stray fireball and…" Kakashi paused, before making an explosion gesture with his hands. " _*POOF*,_ your records go up in smoke."

"What _academy students_ do you know that are shooting off fireballs?" Iruka raised a brow, skeptical.

Kakashi paused, looking around, bored. " _Uchiha…_ "

"Uchiha? But…" Iruka started, frowning slightly, before he seemed to catch himself. Turning back towards Sakura, he smiled sheepishly. "Ah… I suppose if things go well, I can expect a few more of _those_ passing through my class before I retire."

Sakura's stomach churned into knots as everyone took a not-so-innocent look over at her. Ino, in particular, had a sneaky grin plastered on her face.

Blushing, Sakura stomped over and grabbed the broken door behind her, ripping if off completely from the other half. Tossing it onto the floor, Sakura cracked her knuckles.

"Anything useful goes on here." Sakura proclaimed, pointing decisively at the broken door on the ground. "Anything that isn't, we toss out the windows. The students could always use more stuff for _target practice_."

"H-hold on!" Iruka interjected, nervously. "I think it's only fair I take control of this process."

" _You_ are just going to horde everything." Sakura seemingly corrected him. " _I'm_ taking control. You and Kakashi go… _do whatever_ , I don't care."

"B-but!" Iruka continued, though Sakura was having none of his protests.

The young woman went to start the process, feeling restless. As she stomped off into the stacks of scrolls, though she caught Kakashi's curious gaze out of the corner of her eye. There wasn't anything inherent about the man's gaze that was curious, though, as stoic as Kakashi often is. It was more just a relic of spending so much time around him in the past… she just knew.

Stopping in place, Sakura smiled gently at him, setting aside her frustrations if only for a moment.

"…with all due respect, _Sixth_. We can handle things here."

Kakashi raised a brow, before nodding and turning away.

"Let's go, Iruka. I feel a bit too _at home_ around all these old dusty scrolls. Let's let the new generation clean up after us. It's tradition, as far as I'm concerned."

Sakura smiled, before turning back to her duties. The stacks upon stacks of records facing her and her friends was daunting, to be sure, but it least offered the rose-hared girl an opportunity to set aside some nagging feelings that had been haunting her for weeks.

* * *

"Hey, Sakura! Take a look at this…" Ino called out from a corner of the room, clearly restraining some laughter.

Sakura was busy going through a stack of… attendance records. She'd be lying if that didn't have something to do with how quickly she walked over to see what had lightened up Ino's mood; a mood that had been hampered by a solid hour of monotonous work.

Peeking around her, Sakura saw that she was holding their old graduation picture.

"Look how _little_ we are!" Ino pointed out, voice dripping with nostalgia. "This is _adorable_."

Sakura had to admit the sight, everyone posing dutifully as if they had just become _adults_ , brought a smile to her face. That is, until she noticed Naruto wasn't anywhere to be found.

 _I didn't even… notice._

"More like naïve." Sakura chuckled to herself. "Young and dumb."

Ino turned back, unimpressed. She rolled her eyes. "Jeez, you sound like _Shikamaru_."

"So, rational? _Reasonable_?" Shikamaru called out to them, hidden away in another stack of records.

" _Skeptical. Aloof_." Ino countered back, mimicking Shikamaru's usual bored tone. "For you it makes sense, but god forbid if I let you _infect_ my best friend."

"Ino, I'm fine." Sakura assured her with a smile, shaking her head. "Let's just get back to work."

"See, this is what I'm saying! You've been so… well, _weird_ lately. All mopey." Ino urged her on. "What's up?"

"Well, this isn't exactly a fun job, Ino." Sakura sighed, uncomfortable with the sudden scrutiny.

"No-no, I mean like, this past month or two!" Ino clarified, nudging her in the side. "Is it just because _Sasuke_ is gone?"

Pushing the class picture into her face, Ino giggled, pointing at the center of the class, at the aforementioned Uchiha heir. "You miss this little shrimp, here?"

"Oh my god, Ino…" Sakura tried to sound cross, but still couldn't bring herself to anger around her friend's flowery personality. " _Give me that_."

Grabbing the picture from Ino, Sakura laughed as her friend struggled to recapture it. This went on for a short while, as the two went from juking each other out to practically running around the archive. Sakura could tell she had fallen right into Ino's trap… now giggling and smiling, just like the Sakura in the picture she was currently playing keep-away with.

"You two are ridiculous, you know that?" Shikamaru groaned, watching the two run around the archive like kids. "This is troublesome, but I'd rather us finish _today_."

Ino laughed at the accusation, looking over at her exasperated friend, but her eyes seemed to get caught on something. "Hey, what's that you got? _Show me_."

Ino practically skipped over to Shikamaru, who sighed. "Calm down, would ya? It's just some booze… I found it way back there, under a pile of books."

Ino's eyes widened, grabbing the unmarked bottle. " _Just some booze_? Shikamaru, we're in the school archives… that didn't seem _weird_ to you?"

"Of course it did, you idiot… why else would I be holding it?" Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "Give it back. _I_ found it."

"Aw c'mon… you're just gonna use it for something boring, I…" Ino groaned, before struggling to uncork the bottle. "Holy crap, this is tight…"

Giving up without much effort, Ino tossed the bottle over to Sakura, who managed to catch it without warning. "Sakura, open it, would ya?"

Shikamaru narrowed his eyes, gesturing to himself. "Isn't that the guys job?"

"It's the strongest person's job." Ino winked devilishly.

Shikamaru sighed, but relented. "I'd argue with you, but we _all_ saw what she did to that door earlier."

Sakura popped the cork with ease, proving Ino's point perfectly, to her chagrin.

"C-can we just forget about the door- _holy shit_ …" Sakura began to protest, before covering her nose reflexively. "That smell…"

A bit too excitedly, Ino grabbed the bottle back. Taking a whiff herself, her face scrunched up horribly. "Fuck… this is some strong stuff."

Shikamaru went to grab the bottle, but Ino pulled away.

"Why are we even opening it? We've still got a ton of shit to do…" Shikamaru shook his head, frustrated with his squadmate's antics.

"That's exactly why I'm opening it, genius." Ino explained, smirking. "Don't you think this all would go a bit faster if we just got a little…"

"…hammered?" Shikamaru finished the sentence, unimpressed.

"Erm, _loosened up_." Ino corrected him, nodding, before turning to Sakura. "Right?"

Sakura herself wasn't overly impressed with girl's plans.

"Shikamaru's right, Ino. We can't drink on the job, we're _professionals_. This mission was a direct request from the Hokage, in case you forgot." Sakura insisted, turning back to the dusty stacks around them. She began to pick over some documents, trying her best to get back into the working mindset.

…It wasn't working, and Ino could tell.

"You're not wrong, Sakura, but _professional ninjas_ shouldn't be cooped up, doing busy work like this." Ino explained, sounding miffed. "Hokage or not."

"I can agree with that, at least." Shikamaru added, though avoiding eye contact with them both, instead glancing towards the windows. "Though I'd rather not be doing any work at all…"

"See? Shikamaru is on board." Ino chirped happily, urging the bottle towards Sakura. "Just take a little sip…"

Sakura didn't take the bottle, opting instead to look over at Shikamaru for support. The man was busy daydreaming, unfortunately, eyes fixated on the outside world.

"Sakura… you've done nothing but work for the past few years." Ino continued, taking on a softer tone. Placing a hand gently on Sakura's shoulder, she urged her to take the bottle again, though more gently.

"It's just a little drinking, no big deal."

* * *

It usually took quite a bit to throw Kakashi off-kilter, but even a ninja often described as a stoic scarecrow had to re-affirm what he was seeing.

Sakura was sitting next to a pile of pictures, no longer organized as they must've once been, half-empty bottle in hand. Looking up at the recently arrived Hokage, Sakura's face was flushed, and it wasn't out of embarrassment.

Well, not totally.

"Kakashi? I… I thought you had retired for the night already…" Sakura began, looking taken aback.

Kakashi glanced over at the window to the archives, it was indeed night-time, though not insofar that it was weird to be awake; certainly not for him.

"Like your colleagues?" Kakashi responded, simply.

"Mhm. They were tired." Sakura managed, sounding sleepy herself.

"Sounds like they made the right call…" Kakashi said, stretching his back. "And yourself?"

"I wanted to get some extra work done..." Sakura excused herself, placing the bottle down gently behind her, as if to obscure its role in all this.

"You don't look like you're getting any work done." Kakashi cut to the point, walking over to her. "Reminiscing?"

Sakura didn't respond right away, as she gathered the nearby photos into a neater pile.

"…Something like that."

Kakashi nodded, before picking up and going through the pictures himself. As he took his time going through him, Sakura sat awkwardly, unsure exactly how to handle herself in her current state.

"…It's been a long time since then." Kakashi began, flipping over a picture of squad seven. "You're all adults now."

Sakura scoffed, though she regretted the action almost immediately. Still, she continued with a careful, but sarcastic glance:

"Really? Was it the stink of booze that gave it away?" She smiled.

"...among other things, yes." Kakashi reached around her, grabbing the bottle. He had to lean in a ways, bringing him a bit too close to Sakura for her comfort.

She looked anywhere but his eyes, her body only relaxing once he had retreated a safe distance, bottle in hand.

"This is old stuff…" Kakashi said, sounding almost impressed. "You must have found this here; nobody sells _this_ anymore."

"…Shikamaru found it. I-it was… _Ino's_ idea." Sakura stumbled out, not nearly as poised as she was just earlier.

"I know… she told me." Kakashi replied casually, still seemingly busy examining the bottle.

"H-huh?! When? How… _how much_?" Sakrau scrambled to her feet, nearly falling over in the process. "I-is that why you're here?"

"Well, I had assumed you had all quit for the day." Kakashi explained. "But then I saw Ino leave the academy from my office. It was the dead of night."

"You just… saw her? What were _you_ doing?" Sakura replied, trying to shift the spotlight away from herself.

"Keeping an eye on things… it's kind of my job." Kakashi said, his gaze locked into Sakura's.

Sakura shifted uncomfortably in place, looking away. "Well... I'm sorry… I know I said I could handle things here, but… so much for being an adult, huh?"

Kakashi sighed heavily, placing the bottle back down. "I'll let it slide. I know this isn't the most interesting of jobs, and this _was_ supposed to be your day off, so I'm not _entirely_ surprised."

Sakura seemed to decompress, nodding. "Still… I'm sorry."

The repeated apology was delivered with a solemn look, but her expression seemed to pick up after only a moment.

"Oh yeah… y'know, it wasn't even that bad. There's actually a lot of cool stuff hidden away here."

Kakashi looked around, as if to find out for himself. "That so? Do you mean those pictures?"

"Erm, not exactly… though I have to say, you and Gai haven't changed… like… _at all_. Nice _scarf_ , by the way."

Sakura laughed, and Kakashi's face seemed to give way to embarrassment, though only for a split second. Sakura, meanwhile, began to sort through some nearby documents she had gathered.

"Aha! Yeah… I found these old written compositions by academy student's… _years_ ago, from the looks of it. They were mostly pretty boring, but… _this_ one."

Sakura handed a couple pieces of paper over to Kakashi, who took them with a typically bored expression.

"A composition… about 'future aspirations'." Kakashi read aloud. "By…"

The man's typical expression betrayed itself, crumbling under apparent memories.

"Rin Nohara…"

"Right, _that's_ her name… it looks like she buried something wayyy outside the village; it says in the composition there that she was going to dig it up in _twenty_ years. I wonder if she ever remembered? Probably not… I know I did a lot of silly stuff when I was a kid."

"No… definitely not." Kakashi cut into Sakura's tipsy rambling, his voice melancholic.

"Oh… do you know her?" Sakura asked, leaning over to get a look at the composition herself. At the bottom of the page was a map, detailing _roughly_ where her 'buried treasure' was supposedly located.

"I did." Kakashi replied, lowering the page, beyond either of their sights.

"You… _did_?" Sakura sounded out, taken aback by the man's solemn expression. It was an expression she was familiar with, unfortunately.

"Oh… I'm sorry. How did she…"

Sakura's voice dropped off.

Handing back the page to Sakura, Kakashi turned away to the broken door. As he began to walk away, Sakura felt as if there were a hundred questions floating between them; all coming from her, and clinging hopelessly onto _him_.

"We should get some sleep, Sakura." Kakashi called back to her, sounding a bit more composed. "You, especially. I don't know if this is your first time drinking, but you'll find the morning sun isn't to kind to us after a night of partying."

He had disarmed her. It was if the questions had been cut loose, falling lifelessly to the floor. She felt empty, but once the man turn back to check if she was following, his eyes locked to hers with a familiar fondness… things seemed alright to Sakura.

"That so… I didn't take you for much of a drinker, Sensei." Sakura smirked, catching up to her old teacher.

"You're not wrong, Sakura; but Gai gets _creative_ with his challenges, sometimes."

…

"Now there's something I wouldn't mind seeing."


End file.
